A delicate task awaited Olaf Scholz on Saturday, the second day of his trip to the Balkans.

In the morning he traveled to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.

The small country with 1.8 million inhabitants has been trying to join the EU for 17 years.

It even changed its name in 2018.

Because Greece rejected the former name Macedonia due to its own ancient history associated with it and therefore blocked the start of accession negotiations.

After former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev pushed through the renaming to North Macedonia in 2018 with great commitment and just as much political risk, Bulgaria is currently blocking the start of accession negotiations.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Among other things, Sofia wants North Macedonia to enshrine the existence of a Bulgarian minority in its constitution.

This is apparently based on the view that the inhabitants of North Macedonia are not a separate nation.

The view that Macedonian is only a western Bulgarian dialect is also widespread in Bulgaria.

In North Macedonia, the long and fruitless waiting period has led to the population being completely disappointed in the EU and many no longer seeing the accession they had longed for as realistic.

"We can't always be victims of EU summits"

Scholz made it clear in Skopje that he unreservedly supports the immediate start of accession negotiations with North Macedonia.

"The EU is particularly committed to North Macedonia, which has met all the requirements for the start of accession negotiations," said the Chancellor after his talks with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski.

The negotiations that were firmly promised two years ago must now begin.

Scholz, who emphasized the very close bilateral relations between Berlin and Skopje, said he admired the political power that made it possible to reach an understanding with Greece.

It is now time to finally fulfill the promises made to the Western Balkan states as early as 2003.

The fact that the whole thing took so long also has something to do with the EU.

"There was a lack of political leadership and also of daring," said the Chancellor.

North Macedonia and also Albania deserve that the "first accession conference can be opened immediately".

He will work to ensure that the EU makes a corresponding decision for both countries on June 23.

Prime Minister Kovacevski also said his country was expecting negotiations to start in June because it had long since met all the conditions for this.

"We cannot always be victims of EU summits," he added.

His country, which was the youngest member of the alliance when it joined NATO in March 2020, has already shown that it can integrate itself politically and militarily.

Regarding Bulgaria's blocking stance, Kovacevski said his country and Albania could not be Sofia's "hostage".

A solution is to be found through negotiations between the foreign ministries, but Bulgaria must also be prepared to do so.

However, North Macedonia's desire to join has become a domestic political issue in Bulgaria and is being "unilaterally exploited".